


Meteor Strike

by snarechan



Category: Transformers, Transformers (Comics)
Genre: Action, Canon - Comics, Dreamwave, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-20
Updated: 2010-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-21 15:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarechan/pseuds/snarechan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vector Prime has an unexpected run in as he goes to inspect a disturbance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meteor Strike

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nri_ennui](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=nri_ennui).



> I can’t recall why I’d started writing this for Nri, and I never did get around to finishing it proper. At one point I gave up on it entirely, having written myself into a corner, but there are certain parts of this story I can’t help but love too much to just abandon. I tacked on a stopping point and had it beta read by Cassandra Cassidy, so I'm calling it as done as it’s going to get.

The disturbance was immense – it would have to be for Vector Prime to sense its presence. But for a situation so dire, the event was not all that dramatic. Stars in their death throes were epically more exciting and thunderous than a rip in the fabric of time. There were no cries of lives lost or worlds suddenly colliding. This example was far worse, a silent killer that took its pleasure in ruining all that could be held dear in the form of unraveling them one minute at a time.

Needless to say, when he noticed the shift, Vector Prime did not dawdle in going to investigate what had caused the catastrophe. His travels brought him to a remote planet at the far reaches of space, barely a blip in the cosmos at this point, and unfamiliar. He remained incorporeal, not wishing to disturb the world more than it already had been, and gave the surrounding area he had materialized in a closer look.

It was…less than hospitable, life perpetually cleansed from its surface. The act had occurred recently, indicated by a few glowing embers thriving on the last of the wildlife. The rest was nothing but ashes. Appearances indicated that a wildfire had gone wrong, a volcano had erupted, the planet had become too close to sun – all sorts of natural disasters.

The lingering taint of Unicronian spawn indicated otherwise.

As soon as the realization came to him, he was ambushed from the side, the strike akin to a meteor ramming him at full force. It was powerful enough to knock him cleanly out of the dimension he had lingered in and into the one he had observed up until that point. His frame slid along far enough to leave a streak in the ground a hundred feet in length, and gray matter floated up in a clinging, filthy cloud that obscured his vision.

Except that it did not stop the searing blaze that grew in intensity as it approached him, instead causing it to stand out in stark contrast.

“You are later than anticipated. I would have expected a time lord to be _punctual._ ”

Vector Prime, without missing a beat, coughed once to dispel the cinder from his intakes to reply, “If you were looking forward to a brutal defeat at my hands, all you had to do was ask nicely.”

“You clearly misunderstand my desires, Vector Prime,” the Fallen was quick to point out. “If that were the case, I would have sent a different invitation.”

To clarify which kind this was, the next step he took released a line of fire that split a black path in the dirt right towards him. To avoid it, Vector Prime pushed off the ground and into the air, hovering to the side until the attack passed. He floated back down and calculated for a safe place to land, but in that time Fallen had grown bored and moved to assault him once more. He rushed him, fist poised to strike, and Vector Prime was forced to parry the attack with the broadside of his sword. The Fallen went with the motion, ducking down as his frame turned to swipe a leg under Vector Prime’s own to knock him off balance.

Vector Prime brought his sword around to stab the other as he was heaved into range. It sliced directly into his opponent’s midsection and, to his distress, continued straight on its path as he was dragged forward by the Fallen, who barely took notice of the fact that he was skewered. Once his throat was within reaching distance, Fallen grabbed him by it, their frames now awkwardly placed in a standstill on the ground.

Though still in his grasp, Vector Prime was braced for any opening that would present itself, whether it be the Fallen moving to strike or retreat. Whatever his enemy had planned, it did not come swiftly, and it suddenly struck him as odd that the Fallen was not keen on destroying him outright. The opportunity was there – he could feel the heat roiling off Fallen’s frame, barely restrained and starting to turn parts of his own armor a glowing shade of red, and fully capable of getting hotter and melting him completely. Instead, it was if the other was…keeping him distracted.

When he tried to put voice to his suspicions, instead of a question forthcoming, a cry of immense pain and surprise escaped, it nearly shorting out his vocalizer in the process with the intensity of it. His spark felt constricted, and in turn all the agony it experienced was sent through the rest of him, setting every inch of his circuitry to near shortage. The sensation never passed, only lessened to a degree that allowed him to bear the agony and observe his surroundings again.

Desperately, he turned to peer into the depths of space, as if capable of seeing across its distance. Cybertron was calling out to him in need of his help. He looked back at the Fallen to _stare,_ incapable of forming a sentence strong enough to portray how reviled he was towards him for such blatant deceit and trickery in luring him so far away from his sworn duty.

The follower of Unicron didn’t seem to share such sentiments, and with an amused lilt to his tone, he simply said, “Surprise.”

Fueled by his sense of anger, Vector Prime twisted his sword, _hard_ , and shoved Fallen back, ignoring the pain that followed such forced motions and his opponent's rough release of his person. The Fallen was granted the chance to grunt in discomfort and stumble slightly before Vector Prime was upon him again, flipping their positions so that he was the one on top, the sharpened edge of his blade balanced precariously by his throat.

“If you think you can keep me here long enough for your master to carry out his plans, you are severely mistaken!” he said, his entire frame shaking with the effort to keep from collapsing.

“And what do you plan on doing to rectify the situation?” Fallen asked, far too glib, considering that he was an inch from being decapitated. He reached up a hand and placed it over the timepiece situated on his front, and the warmth that pooled from his touch would have been almost soothing if it wasn’t so tainted by its source.

“My guess is you only have enough energy for one _small,_ backwards leap through time. What will you choose: go to the aid of your precious lord, or sacrifice this planet’s entire existence, at the risk of ruining the passage of time forever?”

 _Either way, he would lose_ went unsaid.

Setting his face in a grim but determined expression, he shoved the other away and made to take his leave. His choice was already pre-conceived, and though it may be too late, Vector Prime was not a strong believer in surrendering.

-Fin-


End file.
